Many information handling systems include a graphical user interface (GUI) with which a user communicates with the system. A GUI includes the use of graphic symbols or pictures, rather than just words, to represent objects or elements in the system. Program code is associated with a graphic symbol in order to allow the graphic symbol to possess certain desired behaviors. A graphic symbol, along with its associated program code, make up a GUI control element. The term "widget" is often used to refer to a graphic symbol and its associated program code. Examples of widgets include scroll bars, buttons, icons, dialog boxes, etc.
Programs which include a GUI typically display many widgets, which can be utilized by a user to communicate with the program and/or control events in the system. For example, a program may require user input regarding two possible choices. To obtain the necessary user input, the program may display a selection box widget on the screen. The user, by using a mouse, points and clicks on one selection within the selection box to indicate a particular choice, or points and clicks on the other selection to indicate a different choice.
The specific widgets used by a program are typically coded in the program itself (or a module or object associated with the program). The type of widget to use for a certain set of data, for instance, is determined in the code. This means that in order to change the type of widget used, the program code must be changed, recompiled, and relinked or rebuilt. In the example above, it may be desired to change the selection box widget to a button widget, where the user indicates a choice by either clicking or not clicking on the button widget. To make this change, the program code must be changed to cause a button widget to display on the screen, rather than a selection box widget. After changing the code, it must be recompiled, and then relinked or rebuilt.
It would be desirable to have a system and method for creating and modifying widgets, where the widget specification is determined outside of a program code implementation. It would also be desirable to decouple the widget choice from a particular code implementation, so that a widget may be changed without having to change the program code which uses the widget to display (i.e. contain) data.